Police officers swapped the station for the kitchen to cook up a Christmas lunch for retirement flat residents.

Constable Ricky Phillips, ward officer for Fieldway, and Jamie Hawes, a police community support officer, treated 53 elderly people from two New Addington sheltered housing blocks to dinner with all the trimmings, washed down with mulled wine, on Monday evening.

They arranged for residents of Beech House in Fielding and Ashwood Gardens in Dunley Drive to be collected by mini-bus and taken to Wolsey Infants School, where they also enjoyed a pupils carol singing, a raffle and bingo.

The officers, who cooked dinner using food donated by local businesses, got to know residents after several fell victim to credit card fraud and a spate of bins were torched by arsonists outside Ashwood Gardens.

PC Phillips, 34, who has been working for Croydon police for ten years, said: "We have built up a good rapport with the residents there and have been there a few times to give talks about crime.

Your Local Guardian:

The dinner went off with a bang

"We decided to show the good side of policing and the friendly side. We wrote letters to a number of businesses and different parts of the community and everyone was really willing to come forward and help us, which was fantastic."

Despite being the more senior officer, PC Phillips, of East Grinstead, has happy to let PCSO Hawes, 39, of West Croydon, take the lead on the turkies. He said: "I'm not a dab hand in the kitchen so I did most of the peeling.

"Jamie used to be chef so he was brilliant and knows exactly what he was doing. He did the fancy stuff and I did the easy stuff so I couldn't mess it up."

He added: "It went really well. Better than we thought it would do, considering it was the first time. I think all the residents enjoyed themselves."

Meat Express butcher's shop in Central Parade donated two turkeys for the dinner, while the school raised £200 to help pay for the event. Several supermarkets also donated food.

The officers, who even arranged for dinner to be delivered to residents could not attend in person, hope to hold the event next year for more residents.

In the last few weeks, they have also renovated Beech House's run-down community room and installed a new TV.